The latest complaint filed by the Paris-based Press Freedom Association asks the Hague court to investigate the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed its second complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
The latest complaint filed Friday by the Parisian association for press freedom asks the Hague court to investigate the deaths of seven Palestinian journalists killed in the besieged enclave from October 22 to December 15.
The list of journalists includes last week’s assassination of Tel Aviv Tribune’s Arab cameraman Samer Abudaqa.
“RSF has reasonable grounds to believe that the journalists cited in this complaint were victims of attacks constituting war crimes,” said a statement from the group.
“According to information collected by RSF, these journalists could have been deliberately targeted as journalists. This is why RSF describes these deaths as intentional homicides of civilians.”
RSF filed its first complaint with the ICC since the start of the war, on October 31, for the deaths of seven other journalists. The group claims to have confirmed the deaths of 66 Palestinian journalists since October 7, when the Israeli attack began. Since then, more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed.
The other journalists cited in the RSF complaint are Asem Al-Barsh, journalist at Al Najah radio, killed by sniper fire, and his colleague Bilal Jadallah from the Palestinian Press House, victim of a direct missile attack on his car.
Montaser Al-Sawaf, a cameraman for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, and photojournalist Rushdi Al Siraj were also killed in Israeli air raids on their homes.
Hassouna Salim, of the Quds News agency, was killed by a missile after receiving death threats, and photojournalist Sari Mansour died in the same attack, according to RSF.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Abudaqa “appears to have been killed by precision fire from a drone,” RSF said.
The incident, which the Tel Aviv Tribune media network also decided to refer to the ICC, occurred on December 15, while Abudaqa and Tel Aviv Tribune correspondent Wael Dahdouh were reporting on the attack bombing a school used as a shelter for displaced people in Khan Younis. in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Dahdouh – who lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in a previous Israeli bombardment – was injured in the attack but managed to reach a hospital, where he was treated for injuries minor.
Rescue teams were unable to immediately reach Abudaqa and others at the site because they needed approval from Israeli forces to bulldoze the debris and reach the site.
When first aid arrived five hours later, the journalist had bled to death.
RSF also claims to support the complaint filed by the Tel Aviv Tribune media network regarding the fatal shooting of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin, in the north of the occupied West Bank, on May 11, 2022.
Targeting journalists constitutes a war crime under Article 8 of the Rome Statute.
“Faced with the massacre of journalists in Gaza and the attacks to which they appear to be subject, we call on the ICC prosecutor, Karim Khan, to clearly state that he makes it a priority to elucidate the crimes committed against journalists in Gaza and to prosecute journalists in Gaza. responsible,” said Christophe Deloire, secretary general of RSF, in the press release.
